Wednesday, April 11, 2012

I came across this awesome article written by a reporter in Chengdu as a promotional piece for Jacky’s upcoming concert in the region. It’s a very heartwarming piece recounting Jacky and his wife May’s relationship and so I felt moved to share this with fellow Jacky fans.

With Jacky’s concert ending next month (final stop in HK on May 23rd), there will inevitably be fewer opportunities to read news about Jacky – I know that I will definitely miss ‘following’ all the updates about his concert shows (I feel as though I’ve traveled with Jacky all around the world this past year and a half..LOL)! Therefore, might as well enjoy these articles while they last!

“From the moment I had that ‘electrifying’ feeling, I knew that we would be together.” These are the same words that both Jacky Cheung (張學友) and May Lo (羅美薇) coincidentally happened to say when giving separate interviews to reporters. Sometimes, that’s the way love is – a chance encounter that turns into love at first sight.

On May 4th, Jacky Cheung will be returning to Chengdu [China] to serenade audiences with one signature love song after another – it will be as though he is recounting his own romantic love story with his wife May Lo for his many fans.

Jacky states: “Years ago, there were many times when, with tears in her eyes, May would try to persuade me to quit drinking – she would even buy all sorts of special teas and candies to help me kick the habit, but unfortunately none of it worked. Every time I got drunk, she would prepare tea for me, put a warm towel on my forehead, clean up the vomit in the bathroom….at that time, not only would I not be moved by her actions, sometimes I would even act like a lunatic, holding a wine bottle in one hand and waving erratically at her with the other hand, telling her to get out!”

He continues: “Back then, aside from my own family, there was only one other person who cared so much about my well-being -- that person was May Lo.” At that time, out of desperation, May told Jacky that she was breaking up with him in the hopes of ‘provoking’ him into getting out of his rut and back onto his feet, however this caused his mood to become worse – seeing Jacky in this condition was painful for May and her heart ached for him. She had one of their mutual friends bring him a message: if he would resolve to quit drinking, then she would return to his side. These words were like a light at the end of a dark tunnel for Jacky and from that moment on, he was determined to quit drinking. In October of 1988, May returned to Jacky’s side.

Jacky recounts: “In order to properly handle marriage and family relationships for a lifetime, there are so many things that one must learn.” Nowadays, Jacky always puts his family ahead of all else – in fact, he has even considered sacrificing his own career and interests for his family. Jacky states: “I feel that up to this point, as a husband I would give myself a 60 and as a father I would give myself only a 70 [out of 100]; therefore, I decided to put my family at the center of my life [to continue working on being a good husband and father] – if anyone tried to interfere with these plans, I wouldn’t have any second thoughts about leaving the entertainment industry.”

2 comments:

aw, jacky was so lucky to have such a supportive and understanding gf (now wife), and may was well rewarded for her loyalty cos jacky is also a great catch.

this is off topic but i remember reading about how tony leung chiu wai used to go out on drinking benders back in the early 90s as well. no wonder he and jacky became such good pals. they must've been drinking buddies.

@bebeC: Exactly -- goes to show that true love can conquer all! Both Jacky and May are definitely lucky to have found each other!

It's likely that Tony and Jacky could have been drinking buddies at one point because they've known each other for a long time, since back in the 80s (through their mutual friend Anita Mui)....but in terms of timeline, if they were drinking buddies, it most likely occured in the 80s, since Jacky stopped drinking after 1989...